CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION 



339 



fORRESPONffiNCE 

 , ^^ and Inform/ 



Ineorm^jtonJ 



Prevent; Not Kill Nor Blame. 



Fairfield, Connecticut. 

 To the Editor: 



I wish that sometime you would 

 write on the subject of cats and birds. 

 Here is a paragraph from a letter by 

 a little girl of ten years, written to a 

 magazine : 



"I have five cats, but they are not 

 bird killers. If they were I would kill 

 them all." 



Will you kindly inform me why a 

 child should be brought up with the 

 idea that it is any more right to kill 

 cats than it is to kill birds? 



The cat was born with the instinct 

 to catch birds. Why should we blame 

 it for doing that which it is its nature 

 to do? Human beings kill cattle, pigs, 

 sheep, chickens, pigeons and numerous 

 other living things, for food. Very few 

 people have anything to say against 

 this, but if a cat kills a bird, it is a 

 ^'horrible animal, not fit to live." 



Let me say right here that I am a 

 bird lover myself. Twice a day I take 

 a cup of seed and bread out for them. 

 On account of my neighbors' hens, I 

 have been obliged to arrange a recep- 

 tacle for it on the fence. This "bird 

 restaurant," as I call it, is well patron- 

 ized. I have often counted twenty or 

 thirty birds enjoying themselves. It 

 is but a few feet from my back door, 

 and my cats sit in the dining room 

 windows and watch the birds. Whether 

 or not they have any desire to make 

 a meal of them, I am not prepared to 

 say. They never have caught a bird, 

 as they never have had a chance to do 

 so. I never allow them out unless 1 

 am with them, and they are not allow- 

 ed to trespass on my neighbors' prop- 

 erty. 



It would cause me a great deal of 

 distress if I saw them catch a bird, just 



as it would distress me to see anyone 

 kill a chicken, but I should not blame 

 the cat for doing as nature dictates. 

 I should blame myself for allowing the 

 cat a chance to get the bird. 



People should keep their cats at 

 home, just as they should the rest of 

 their live stock ; but if they do not, and 

 a cat kills a bird, let the owner be 

 blamed and not the cat. 



Very truly, 

 Mrs. Liluan B. Tew Kexley. 



He Reads Even the Local Advertising. 



Lansing, Michigan. 

 To the Editor : 



Herewith is an imperfect (light 

 struck) photograph — but the best one 

 I have — to show a remarkable oak tree 

 whose body from the ground up about 

 forty feet is very straight and perfect 

 and then it forms a crotch and either 

 side is fairly straight, and about eight 

 feet it forms a solid body again even 

 larger than the main trunk below. 



In this historic (to us in Michigan) 

 old farmyard are fifty-two large 

 sturdy oaks. The rest of the timber, 

 about three hundred acres, belonging 

 to this estate of 3160 acres has been 

 cut off and there is a very fine growth 

 of young timber fast taking the place 

 of the old forest. Michigans greatest 

 statesman, Zach Chandler, bought this 

 large tract of land, called the marsh 

 farm, in 1857, and had he lived it would 

 have been made the Garden of Eden. 

 As it is, it is a fine place for nature 

 study as there are all kinds of birds 

 and snakes. There are rattlers as large 

 as your wrist and blue racers and black 

 snakes four to six feet long. The marsh 

 in the springtime is literally alive with 

 snipe, plover, duck of all kinds, bittern, 

 rail, and best of all the beautiful sand- 

 hill crane, but too shy to be seen only 



